According to court documents obtained by the UK newspaper The Telegraph, Russia helped itself to $100 million in cash from tech giant Google in order to pay for its ongoing war against Ukraine.
It appears the Russian government seized the company’s money, as the records show that Google’s Russian bank accounts were drained right after the beginning of the war that broke out in February, 2022. This led to Google’s Russian division going bankrupt.
The money was sent to state-owned media channels including Russia Today and Tsargrad, the latter of which promised to use the cash to campaign for the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Unsurprisingly, Google is not pleased and has filed multiple lawsuits in U.S. and UK courts against Russia Today, Tsargard, and the Russian broadcaster NFPT. Google is accusing Russian courts of commanding the company to pay the three networks millions of dollars in supposed “compensation” for Google’s decision to block their content from its Youtube platform. Google also deleted the Youtube accounts of the broadcasters as part of Western sanctions against the Moscow government.
In court papers filed last week, Google said Russia had imposed “unprecedented fines and arbitrary legal penalties” against the company. This was done in service of denying people access to Google products, it said, and to punish the private company for complying with international sanctions.
Google said Russia stole more than $100 million of its assets, despite the fact that Russian court judgments against the company were a mere $12.5 million. Google alleges that Tsargard got $11 million for its promise to propagandize for the war.
As part of its suit against Russia, the tech giant wants the Western courts to stop the Russian media companies from grabbing the cash it has in South Africa, Serbia, and Turkey.
Google is one of the largest and richest companies in the world with a market capitalization of more than $2 trillion.
